JW’s & Atheists - Great (Cultic) Minds Think Alike
In the Jehovah’s Witness religion, there is a ceremony known in those circles as the Memorial of Christ’s death, or just “The Memorial” for short. It is claimed and believed among members that Jehovah’s Witnesses observe the exact same ceremony that is more widely known as The Lord’s Supper among Christians.
Now, most people are familiar with that ceremony and how on the night before he died the Lord Jesus Christ took some unleavened bread, broke off some it and offered it to his disciples an said, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor. 11:24) The same thing was done with wine, symbolizing his blood that was soon to be poured out on the behalf of his disciples, taking their punishment for them, in their place, for their personal sins, (not Adam’s) as the “Lamb of God”.
What is less widely known is that Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the bread and the wine as it is handed to them during the ceremony at their Kingdom Halls. For this and other reasons, many wonder how Jehovah’s Witnesses can imagine that their sins are forgiven since they are clearly outside of the New Covenant that was inaugurated at that first Lord’s Supper.
When confronted with this dilemma the Witness will invariably claim that they do not reject the New Covenant because they most certainly do observe the Lord’s Supper. Indeed if a person has never been to one of their ceremonies, they might be tempted to just take the Witnesses’ word for it. Most people would just reason, “Why would this nice, well dressed person blatantly lie about something like this, they must be right”?
This is an excellent example of what is known as “Cognitive Dissonance”. C.D. is the act of holding two mutually exclusive concepts or statements as true, although both cannot be true. The key that unlocks the cultic mind process in this instance is the word “observe” and it’s dual meaning. Cultic minds often use words and definitions to partition off certain parts of their reasoning so that C. D. can replace logic.
If a Christian were to explain to a Hindu that he will not be working on December 25, because he will be observing that holiday; the Hindu would naturally assume that the Christian will spend some time with his family and exchange some gifts. The Hindu would rightly assume that the word observe is a synonym for participation; in the events inherent to that holiday, ie.; the giving of gifts.
However, when a Jehovah’s Witness uses the word “observe” in connection with the practices inherent with the Lord’s Supper, he does not mean “participation”. In his cultic mind, he assigns a definition outside of the context in which it is used. He simply changes the definition as a ploy to escape scrutiny by the one he is speaking to. In the cultic mind, he isn’t lying, although what he is claiming is the opposite of commonly accepted reality.
At the behest of the JW leaders that choose carefully planned definitions for him, the JW believes that as he sits in his chair and “observes” the bread being passed to him, he imagines participation, even as he rejects it and passes it on down the row. He reasons, “did I not observe the plate of bread, seeing it with my own two eyes? In this way, a cultic mind can hold two realities as true although both statements are the opposite of one another. – “I celebrate the Lords’ Supper” and “I reject the Lord’s Supper”. It also affords the cultic mind an apparatus to stop scrutiny; communicating the idea - “I observe the Lord’s Supper so leave me alone”! The JW may even experience feelings of superiority because he is “able” to understand the “true” definition of what it means to be a Christian, even while 99.9% of all other people are deceived and “just can’t get it”.
If you are thinking that this is non-sense, the height of dishonesty and self-deception - you are right. Cognitive Dissonance isn’t natural and is a telling sign that a person is under the direct influence of aggressive falsehood or illusion. It is also an indication that a person is starting to break with reality, a precursor to mental illness.
The facts show that Jehovah’s Witnesses have the highest turnover rate of any major religion. Unfortunately, many who leave, take their cognitive dissonance “skills” with them and become atheists.
A major theme in atheist thought is that the general population (99.3%) simply misunderstands them, being not educated or enlightened enough. Like the JW, they imagine a different definition than the one found in dictionaries and is commonly accepted for the word “belief”. Before we examine the bastardization of the word belief, we probably should take a look at the word “atheist”.
The word atheist is really a-theist. “Theos” is the Greek word for God. Just as the word “amoral” means without morals, the word atheist means without God. It is a world view that interprets observable facts without God, the same as an amoral person interprets his behavior without morals. Major proponents of atheism like Richard Dawkins like to fuse the meaning of the word “a-theist”, into something synonymous with “a-belief”. This connecting of different definitions is in reality con (latin for “with”) fusion or commonly known as confusion.
Using this word trick, atheists parrot their chief propagandists and try to morph the definition of atheist into meaning: without belief; when in fact it means without God. This requires cognitive dissonance. To illustrate:
Suppose an atheist, (a person who says to himself there is no God) believes that he isn’t what he really is, but rather is a-belief (a person operating without belief) as Dawkins and others maintain. He might just as well not believe that he has a job waiting for him the next morning. Because his job could in fact end any day, why not just wait for the boss to call and provide “proof”? The fact is that the employed atheist is not ‘a-belief” (or, without belief) because he in fact believes his job won’t end that morning. I know I am being generous here. Many atheists probably do require that kind of proof (the boss calling to confirm) which would no doubt very quickly lead to the atheist becoming a-employed (without employment). Come to think of it, that might actually explain why so many atheists still live with their mothers. Never mind. Let’s go to the dictionary instead for the terms “atheist” and “belief”.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines atheism and belief thusly:
atheism
/aythi-iz’m/
• noun the belief that God does not exist.
— ORIGIN from Greek a- ‘without’ + theos ‘god’.
belief
• noun1 a feeling that something exists or is true, especially one without proof. 2 a firmly held opinion. 3 (belief in) trust or confidence in. 4 religious faith.
The ultimate authority for definitions is of course the bible. When it defines atheists, it leaves out the word belief altogether and defines an atheist as a person who “hath said in his heart, There is no God.” – Ps. 53:1 In other words, a conclusion on the matter has been drawn; which is exactly what atheists have done.
So, a person can plainly see from these definitions that atheism does not mean unbelief in God, it means literally “without God” ….. and possibly without employment for some.
Now, the question arises as to why do the atheist promoters want to fuse the definitions? Well, why do the Jehovah’s Witnesses want to flip the various definitions of the word “observe”? The reason is obvious; they want to appear to be the opposite of what they in actuality are. Instead of being proud of who they are, the JW's play word games to try and appear as genuine Christians to the unsuspecting, in hopes of placing themselves beyond scrutiny. If rejecting the emblems at the Lord’s Supper was really what everyone should be doing, they ought to be plainly telling everyone how right, and correct that is, instead of falsely telling everyone that they they indeed do “observe” the Lord’s Supper.
Likewise, atheists should be proud of who they are. Instead of falsely portraying themselves as poor battered, misunderstood skeptics without belief, without a world-view, yea, without a religion of sorts; they should be promoting the glorious wonders of atheism. Like:
* How an atheist can know (as opposed to believe) right from wrong
* How the thousands of artifacts on this website: ( http://www.s8int.com ) fits in with an atheist world view
* How they can explain the origin and existence of our finely tuned universe that without certain margins of error, all or part could not exist:
The constants of the laws of physics have been finely tuned to a degree not possible through human engineering. Five of the more finely tuned numbers are included in the table below. For comments about what scientists think about these numbers, see the page Quotes from Scientists Regarding Design of the Universe
Fine Tuning of the Physical Constants of the Universe | |
Parameter | Max. Deviation |
Ratio of Electrons:Protons | 1:10 37 |
Ratio of Electromagnetic Force:Gravity | 1:10 40 |
Expansion Rate of Universe | 1:10 55 |
Mass of Universe1 | 1:10 59 |
1:10 120 | |
These numbers represent the maximum deviation from the accepted values, that would either prevent the universe from existing now, not having matter, or be unsuitable for any form of life. | |
Atheists like to present themselves as lovers of facts, quasi-scientists, above the taint of false interpretation. The fact of the matter is that atheists have adopted a looking-glass lense that requires them to interpret phenonma incorrectly so that their precious world-view is not disturbed.
It is not that atheists are without belief, they are in actuality full of belief as to how things should be for you, and for me... as they interpret facts in their world. The atheist paradigm requires belief in the impossible and is reducible to :
“Because I exist, there is no God.”